


A Daunting Task

by abyssalUpwelling



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Gen, denizen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-03-24
Updated: 2014-03-24
Packaged: 2018-01-16 20:07:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,092
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1360129
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/abyssalUpwelling/pseuds/abyssalUpwelling
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“No denizen has ever been mistaken as boring company.<br/>But the self-proclaimed mother of all monsters is notoriously striking to her players.”<br/>-blah blah blah as said by a huge bitch</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Daunting Task

**Author's Note:**

  * For [ribbontype](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ribbontype/gifts).



Her gaze was locked upon the palace standing before her.

She hesitated, afflicted about facing her denizen.

Or perhaps more worried about facing her fate.

And Jack knocking over the statues behind her wasn’t helping at all with her nerves.

She took a deep breath before continuing forward, hoping Kanaya was right about Echidna knowing where the last frog was.

Her long star sprinkled dress dragged behind her as she walked down the hall, newspaper still in her hand, clutching it tightly, partially due to her nerves being a wreck, partially due to her tendency to beat Jack on the nose to stop him from his antics.

The walk down there seemed to take an eternity for the girl; her nerves a complete wreck, but that didn’t hold a candle to how her breath suddenly halted as she reached her Denizen.

It took her a minute before she was incited to move again, staring in disbelief at the serpent like creature before her.

She ransacked her mind, which was in chaos as of now due to her nerves, for the name the troll had given the monster, before recalling the green text troll had called her Echidna.

And she was vast in size, Jade gazed up to her in awe, perhaps intrigued by the blue scales reflecting light like sapphires, or the quills on her back which resembled an extremely powerful sort of weapon, or perhaps Jade was interested in the way the great monster gazed down back at her, giving off a look of curiosity, like a child given a new toy.

Jade takes a deep gulp, trying to compose herself before talking to Echidna, her nervousness showing off in her hand, as she tightly grasps her 3 AM dress.

“Oh, um, hello Ms. Echidna, oh wait I mean that’s probably not how you want to be referred to right, I guess I should say your Magnificence Echidna, well that doesn’t really fit you, perhaps-“

Her last syllables are cut short by the Denizen, silencing the girl with words that echoed through off the walls.

"Silence child, speak for the reason you have sought me out.”

A slow growl was heard from the back of the room after she talked, the blood thirsty demon seeming not to be fond of the Denizen, perhaps there was a part of him that wasn’t fond of how the monster spoke down to the girl.

Giving her attention to her Denizen she spoke again, this time taking time not to fumble over her words.

“I was told that you could help locate the final frog.”

Her Denizen pauses for a moment, eyes glaring down at Jade, not menacingly, but in a more condescending way.

“There is a possibility that I can help you with your quest, but is part of The Choice you must make.”

Jade stood her ground, hand still clutching the fabric of her dress tightly, and raised herself on her tip toes, trying to be ever so slightly taller as if it would help her speak to the ginormous beast.

“There are two presented to you, one choice being that will give you what you desire, the memory of the final element to your universe to allow you to win the game successfully.”

“Well, this isn’t hard I at all, I’ll just go with that choice.”

Jade almost laughs out, her hand unclenching from the dress.

“But if you choose this choice your own life will be put up and lost, but to benefit the other players of this session.”

With a slight turn of her head an expression of apprehension crosses the young girls face, and asks in a more quiet tone than her previous outbursts,

“You said there would be another option, is it any better?”

Echidna almost seems to smirk at this remark,

“Why child from Land of Frost and Frogs, the second choice promises life to you and your fellow players, but one of doom, of lost, of a universe not meant to be created, but you may take this path on your own, and leave this place, without the knowledge you so seek from me.”

“What do you mean by doom?”

“The universe itself will be blank, of nothingness, the point of living will be lost among you and the others, their own lives will end up tossed away from it, and you will look back at choice you had made years ago, and have said it would’ve been better to have died here than to have let them suffer the pain themselves.”

“So you’re saying it’s me or my friends?”

“Perhaps that is what I’m saying to you, or perhaps you are interrupting it wrong.”

“It sounds like you’re asking me about facing my morality.”

“Oh little witch of space there is much you need to learn from this game.”

“It’s not just a game, and I’m not going to let my friends suffer because I was being selfish.”

“So you still wish to know the memory?”

“Yes,”

her voice halted as she said it, but her decision remained clear.

“But there is a final part to that agreement, of small matter to you, as the time comes, you should carry it out with ease. If you accept my help.”

“I do.”

“Then young one, you must make a promise to me, that when your time comes to leave, and you leave to a place that existence is questionable to space, I must come.”

“Ex-excuse me?!”

“Not only me, but the other Denizens, their palaces, their consorts, their lands, everything, a promise only you can make to ensure that you accept my help.”

Jade stepped back for a moment, her hand reaching out behind her for something of balance, but being nothing there she falls flat on her back.

She was being told to do something impossible, no way she could move an entire planet, the biggest teleporter in the universe wouldn’t be able to do that, Bec couldn’t have even pulled it off himself, and she wasn’t asking for one planet,  but all of them, a weight she didn’t want on her shoulders.

Her breath almost chokes her up, almost passing out before she realized something.

She had to do it, it wasn’t like there was ever really a choice, her friends came first, and if a life and a couple of impossible deeds is what it takes, so be it.

She raises herself out the ground, stepping forward, and stands her ground staring Echidna dead in the eye and replies to her.

“I accept.”


End file.
